Russian lawmakers ask President Obama to impose sanctions on them all

The State Duma has passed a motion suggesting that the US and EU extend the freshly introduced sanctions to all Russian MPs rather than a limited group of officials, defying western pressure just hours before Russia and Crimea signed a federation treaty.

The motion was supported by a unanimous vote on Tuesday morning.
It was prepared the day before by all four parliamentary parties
after representatives of the United States and the European Union
said they were slapping sanctions, such as visa bans and asset
freezes, on a number of Russian officials who are seen as “key
ideologists and architects” of the policy towards Ukraine.

The State Duma motion reads that the US President’s decree was
limiting the rights of Russian citizens and that similar
discriminatory measures were approved by foreign ministers of the
EU nations.

In a speech MP Mikhail Markelov (Fair Russia) called the move by
the US State Department, President Obama and the European Union
“an absurd attempt”, and suggested that the US punished
all lower house members. “As long as they stress that MP
Lyudmila Mizulina is on the blacklist, they should also impose
sanctions on all 436 MPs who voted for the law that protects our
children from gay propaganda,” Markelov noted.

A day earlier, after first reports about the new sanctions the
head of the lower house committee for family issues Lyudmila
Mizulina said that she was perplexed by her addition to the list.
“The decision is puzzling – although we’ve expected sanctions
– because I don’t have any accounts or real estate abroad, nor do
my family members live abroad…Why was particularly I
included?” the lawmaker said in press comments.

Deputy Markelov also said in his Duma speech that Russian
politicians cannot be intimidated by Western sanctions as
previous examples of their application demonstrate that such
measures are hardly effective. “They tried it before in
Serbia, Belarus, Syria. But these nations have not lost their
dignity, have not lost their identity, they remain united and
independent countries,” the deputy said.

“Our position is extremely clear and honest. We never betray
our own. We will never betray the Russian-speaking citizens and
simply the citizens who live on the territory of Crimea, who have
made a decision to be with Russia forever,” Markelov told
the parliamentarians.

“As for the sanctions, today any sanctions will only unite
our political elite, because our businessmen and the common
people have always united before external threats, regardless of
their political views,” the MP added.

Commenting on the parliamentary motion an Russian presidential
aide Yuri Ushakov said that everyone in Russia was tired of
sanctions adding that the western measures only caused irony or
even sarcasm. He refused to answer the question if Russia planned
any reciprocal steps.

Hours after the State Duma passed the motion President Vladimir
Putin, Crimea’s Prime Minister Sergey Aksenov, Chairman of the
Crimea nlegislature Vladimir Konstantinov and Sevastopol Mayor
Aleksey Chaly signed the federation treaty between the
Crimean Republic and Russia. Putin asked the Russian parliament
to ratify the treaty making both Crimea and the city of
Sevastopol new federation subjects.